imagine circumstances such as might entirely disturb the equilibrium which the powers of diffusion of different species have produced;might give to some the opportunity of invading and conquering the domain of others; and in the end, the means of entirely suppressing them, and establishing themselves in their place.

That this extirpation of certain species, which, as we have seen, happens in a few cases under common circumstances, might happen upon a greater scale, if the range of external changes were to be much enlarged, cannot be doubted. The extent, therefore, to which natural causes may account for the extinction of species, will depend upon the amount of change which we suppose in the physical conditions of the earth. It must be a task of extreme difficulty to estimate the effect upon the organic world, even if the physical circumstances were given. To determine the physical condition to which a given state of the earth would give rise, I have already noted as another very difficult problem. Yet these two problems must be solved, in order to enable us to judge of the sufficiency of any hypothesis of the extinction of species; and in the mean time, for the mode in which new species come into the places of those which are extinguished, we have (as we have seen) no hypothesis which physiology can, for a moment, sanction.

Sect. 7.-The Imbedding of Organic Remains.

THERE is still one portion of the Dynamics of Geology, a branch of great and manifest importance, which I have to notice, but upon which I need only speak very briefly. The mode in which the spoils of exist ing plants and animals are imbedded in the deposits now forming, is a subject which has naturally attracted the attention of geologists. During the controversy which took place in Italy respecting the fossils of the Sub-Apennine hills, Vitaliano Donati," in 1750, undertook an examination of the Adriatic, and found that deposits containing shells and corals, extremely resembling the strata of the hills, were there in the act of formation. But without dwelling on other observations of like kind, I may state that Mr. Lyell has treated this subject, and all the topics connected with it, in a very full and satisfactory manner. He has explained,16 by an excellent collection of illustrative facts, how deposits of various substance and contents are formed; how plants and animals become fossil in peat, in blown sand, in volcanic matter, in

15 Lyell, B. 1. c. iii. p. 67. (4th ed.) VOL. II.-37.

16 B. III. c. xiii. xiv. xv. xvi. xvii.

alluvial soil, in caves, and in the beds of lakes and seas. This exposition is of the most instructive character, as a means of obtaining right conclusions concerning the causes of geological phenomena. Indeed, in many cases, the similarity of past effects with operations now going on, is so complete, that they may be considered as identical; and the discussion of such cases belongs, at the same time, to Geological Dynamics and to Physical Geology; just as the problem of the fall of meteorolites may be considered as belonging alike to mechanics and to physical astronomy. The growth of modern peat-mosses, for example, fully explains the formation of the most ancient: objects are buried in the same manner in the ejections of active and of extinct volcanoes; within the limits of history, many estuaries have been filled up; and in the deposits which have occupied these places, are strata containing shells," as in the older formations.

17 Lyell, B. 1. c. xvii. p. 286. See also his Address to the Geological Society in 1837, for an account of the Researches of Mr. Stokes and of Professor Göppert, on the lapidification of vegetables.

PHYSICAL GEOLOGY.

CHAPTER VII.

PROGRESS OF PHYSICAL GEOLOGY.

Sect. 1.-Object and Distinctions of Physical Geology.

BEING, in consequence of the steps which we have attempted to

describe, in possession of two sciences, one of which traces the laws of action of known causes, and the other describes the phenomena which the earth's surface presents, we are now prepared to examine how far the attempts to refer the facts to their causes have been successful: we are ready to enter upon the consideration of Theoretical or Physical Geology, as, by analogy with Physical Astronomy, we may term this branch of speculation.

The distinction of this from other portions of our knowledge is sufficiently evident. In former times, Geology was always associated with Mineralogy, and sometimes confounded with it; but the mistake of such an arrangement must be clear, from what has been said. Geology is connected with Mineralogy, only so far as the latter science classifies a large portion of the objects which Geology employs as evidence of its statements. To confound the two is the same error as it would be to treat philosophical history as identical with the knowledge of medals. Geology procures evidence of her conclusions wherever she can; from minerals or from seas; from inorganic or from organic bodies; from the ground or from the skies. The geologist's business is to learn the past history of the earth; and he is no more limited to one or a few kinds of documents, as his sources of information, than is the historian of man, in the execution of a similar task.

Physical Geology, of which I now speak, may not be always easily separable from Descriptive Geology: in fact, they have generally been combined, for few have been content to describe, without attempting in some measure to explain. Indeed, if they had done so, it is proba

ble that their labors would have been far less zealous, and their expositions far less impressive. We by no means regret, therefore, the mixture of these two kinds of knowledge, which has so often occurred; but still, it is our business to separate them. The works of astronomers before the rise of sound physical astronomy, were full of theories, but these were advantageous, not prejudicial, to the progress of the science.

Geological theories have been abundant and various; but yet our history of them must be brief. For our object is, as must be borne in mind, to exhibit these, only so far as they are steps discoverably tending to the true theory of the earth and in most of them we do not trace this character. Or rather, the portions of the labors of geologists which do merit this praise, belong to the two preceding divisions of the subject, and have been treated of there.

:

The history of Physical Geology, considered as the advance towards a science as real and stable as those which we have already treated of (and this is the form in which we ought to trace it), hitherto consists of few steps. We hardly know whether the progress is begun. The history of Physical Astronomy almost commences with Newton, and few persons will venture to assert that the Newton of Geology has yet appeared.

Still, some examination of the attempts which have been made is requisite, in order to explain and justify the view which the analogy of scientific history leads us to take, of the state of the subject. Though far from intending to give even a sketch of all past geological speculations, I must notice some of the forms such speculations have at different times assumed.

Sect. 2.-Of Fanciful Geological Opinions.

REAL and permanent geological knowledge, like all other physical knowledge, can be obtained only by inductions of classification and law from many clearly seen phenomena. The labor of the most active, the talent of the most intelligent, are requisite for such a purpose. But far less than this is sufficient to put in busy operation the inventive and capricious fancy. A few appearances hastily seen, and arbitrarily interpreted, are enough to give rise to a wondrous tale of the past, full of strange events and supernatural agencies. The mythology and early poetry of nations afford sufficient evidence of man's love of the wonderful, and of his inventive powers, in early stages of intellectual development. The scientific faculty, on the other hand,

and especially that part of it which is requisite for the induction of laws from facts, emerges slowly and with difficulty from the crowd of adverse influences, even under the most favorable circumstances. We have seen that in the ancient world, the Greeks alone showed themselves to possess this talent; and what they thus attained to, amounted only to a few sound doctrines in astronomy, and one or two extremely imperfect truths in mechanics, optics, and music, which their successors were unable to retain. No other nation, till we come to the dawn of a better day in modern Europe, made any positive step at all in sound physical speculation. Empty dreams or useless exhibitions of ingenuity, formed the whole of their essays at such knowledge.

It must, therefore, independently of positive evidence, be considered as extremely improbable, that any of these nations should, at an early period, have arrived, by observation and induction, at wide general truths, such as the philosophers of modern times have only satisfied themselves of by long and patient labor and thought. If resemblances should be discovered between the assertions of ancient writers and the discoveries of modern science, the probability in all cases, the certainty in most, is that these are accidental coincidences;-that the ancient opinion is no anticipation of the modern discovery, but is one guess among many, not a whit the more valuable because its expression agrees with a truth. The author of the guess could not intend the truth, because his mind was not prepared to comprehend it. Those of the ancients who spoke of the harmony which binds all things together, could not mean the Newtonian gravitation, because they had never been led to conceive an attractive force, governed by definite mathematical laws in its quantity and operation.

In agreement with these views, we must, I conceive, estimate the opinions which we find among the ancients, respecting the changes which the earth's surface has undergone. These opinions, when they are at all of a general kind, are arbitrary fictions of the fancy, showing man's love of generality indeed, but indulging it without that expense of labor and thought which alone can render it legitimate.

We might, therefore, pass by all the traditions and speculations of Oriental, Egyptian, and Greek cosmogony, as extraneous to our subject. But since these have recently been spoken of, as conclusions collected, however vaguely, from observed facts,' we may make a remark or two upon them.